I'm on the same quest, the reflektor silvers and vokshods are great and inexpensive, aside of that look for German production Siemens
Small tubes when NOS could be great but noisy (especially when used in phono stages) which is the defacto typical application, using these in high gain stages you need to be sure they are not noisy (I don't say strong because a valve can be strong still noisy)
Small tubes when NOS could be great but noisy (especially when used in phono stages) which is the defacto typical application, using these in high gain stages you need to be sure they are not noisy (I don't say strong because a valve can be strong still noisy)